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Old 3rd October 2005, 22:17
Delmenhorst Delmenhorst is offline
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Re: Questions on 8th AF Swinemünde raid on 12 March 1945

Jörg friedrich is a bit wrong. There were no strafing US fighters in the Swinemünde area. Strafing was forbidden and there is not one report on strafing during the day. The only time that US fighters went 'down on the deck' was over Denmark where 339th FG shot down three German fighters near Haderslev.
It would also be a bit difficult for the fighters to strafe the target area after the bombing. The whole area was covered in smoke and lowhanging clouds.

The bombers dropped mainly 1.000 lb GP bombs. A third of these were with instant fuse and two thirds with short time delay .04 and .10. I have talked to one of the lead bombardiers and his bomb load was with .01 sec fuses.
The target was 'port area' and this was the normal procedure for attacking this type of target. Some of the bombs should detonate without penetrating the ground and give maximum blast effect against buildings and stores.
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